We started the maltrunners.com review collective website in June. We’re a group of reviewers who met on Reddit and Discord and wanted to join forces to get our reviews in one place. Since we all read each other and a lot of people who read our stuff tend to like our collective style, this website serves as a way to reduce the number of blogs you need to follow.

I’m the resident ASMW reviewer there, among other things.

This collective year end post includes, for each author, 5 whiskey and spirits worthy of mention: Best, Most Surprising, Most Disappointing, Worst, and Can’t Stop Talking About.

There’s a lot in there and it ranges across all types of whiskey and spirits (though mostly scotch to be fair) but my section includes my ASMW votes for (1) best whiskey of the year, Westland Solum, and (2) most surprising whsikey of the year, Lost Lantern St George Mountain Meadow.

My segment is included below, but here’s the full post:

2023 Year in Review – Malt Runners

Hope you enjoy the rest of the read as well!

Best pour: Westland Solum Edition 1 (93/100).
The first entry in an annual release series featuring Pacific Northwest Peat, and also the first whiskey into barrel using any American Peat. Not only is it “first”, it’s damned delicious whiskey.

Most surprising: Lost Lantern St George Mountain Meadow (91/100).
Basically tastes like a concentrate syrup of mead and citrus-heavy and non-bitter IPA. Delicious, but a very unusual flavor profile for whiskey; I had to check more than once that the bottle actually contained American Single Malt Whiskey and nothing else. All new and used oak casks.

Most disappointing: Van Winkle 13 Year Family Reserve Rye.
Among the hyped Pappy cadre this was extremely “just okay” and a bit overoaked.

Worst pour: Murlarkey Smokehouse Whiskey.
I enjoyed the experience of tasting this blind because it was so bizarre, but ultimately it was thin in flavor and left me with the lasting impression that it tasted like hot dog water and toasted hot dog bun. Not exactly what I’m looking for in whiskey. Can’t see its use in a cocktail either.

I can’t stop talking about: If Solum hadn’t been my highest rated I would have put that here, too. But leaving the realm of whiskey, the one and only thing I’ve been talking about since it was released was Clear Creek 15 Year Apple Brandy Single Barrel selected by Aficionados Group.